The Grand Island Independent. April 24, 2018
We must know it happens
This month, people throughout our country are being reminded of something they would rather not know happens.
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and many organizations that have the specific goal of stopping child abuse are working hard to show just how prevalent this tragedy is.
We would rather not know that there are more than 3 million reports of violence and maltreatment of children each year in the United States.
We would rather not know that there are five deaths of children per day due to abuse.
We would rather not know that, as widespread as child abuse is, two-thirds of the incidents in our country go unreported.
But knowing these statistics and knowing how big a problem mistreatment of children is can be the key to getting people to file reports with the proper authorities before a child becomes the next statistic.
Grand Island residents know just how horrible child abuse can be because of a widely publicized incident of child abuse in 2003 when Little Diana Molina died at the hands of her father. Diana had been beaten close to 100 times with a belt and dropped on the floor 10 to 20 times during a 24-hour period.
Little Diana’s death has become a cornerstone of the message of the Association for Child Abuse Prevention in Grand Island as it works to make sure we know that things like this happen and they happen much more often than most of us realize.
ACAP will hold a ceremony at 4:30 p.m. today at Little Diana’s gravesite on the northeast side of the Grand Island Cemetery, commemorating her life, but also drawing awareness to the fact that many more children have been abused and neglected since Diana died.
Child abuse occurs across all socioeconomic levels, ethnic and cultural lines, religions and education levels.
We don’t want to know about it, but it’s important that we do know about it. Stopping child abuse begins with intervention to help parents and guardians think before they act and realize the impact of emotional and physical abuse on children. But it’s also important that each of us know enough about this scourge to be able to recognize the signs that a child may be suffering abuse.
One way to report suspected child abuse to a trained professional is to call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline.
The hotline serves the U.S. and Canada. It is staffed 24 hours a day and seven days a week with professional crisis counselors and interpreters for more than 170 languages.
The hotline offers crisis intervention, information and referrals to emergency, social service and support resources. All calls are confidential.
In 2017 the hotline received 114,990 calls and texts. The national hotline is available at (1-800) 4-A-Child or (1-800) 422-4453.
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Scottsbluff Star Herald. April 27, 2018.
Celebrate by planting a tree
Friday, April 27, would be a great day to go outside and plant a tree.
Why, you ask?
It is a holiday first observed in Nebraska 146 years ago. On Friday, Nebraskans, along with people across the country and in over 30 other countries, will celebrate Arbor Day.
The very first Arbor Day was celebrated on April 10, 1872, through the efforts of J. Sterling Morton. An estimated 1 million trees were planted in Nebraska during the first Arbor Day.
Trees are an important addition to any landscape. They provide oxygen, conserve energy, prevent soil erosion, clean our air, add beauty to our world and they can help conserve energy.
If you plant three trees around a family home in strategic places, it can cut the use of the air conditioners by up to 50 percent.
In a city, trees can help cool an area by up to 10 F because they shade our homes and streets, break up urban “heat islands” and release water vapor into the air through their leaves.
Studies show that the addition of trees in a business district will draw in customers. Traffic will slow down if a street is lined with trees, making the area safer and allow travelers more time to notice businesses.
Trees around homes or in a neighborhood can raise property values as much as 15 percent. They can also do a great job muffling the sound of traffic, absorb dust and block wind and glare.
All in all, trees add to so much to our daily lives and are well-worth taking the time to get the family together to plant a tree near your home.
Planting trees together as a family also will provide a living memory. As you and your family grow, your tree or trees will grow with you. Later in life, at graduations and marriages, or as grandkids come to play, you can look back and share the stories of planting the tree and the good times you had playing around and in the tree.
By 1920, every state in the country had passed public laws setting aside a day as Arbor Day. National Arbor Day is celebrated every year on the last Friday in April; however, the planting of trees is not limited to just one day a year. If you can’t get away on Friday to plant a tree, Saturday and/or Sunday will work.
Weather predictions are calling for a beautiful, warm weekend - great weather to purchase a tree, large or small - and gather the family and celebrate Arbor Day.
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Lincoln Journal Star. April 27, 2018
Making sense, checking facts on campaign advertising
In case mountains of campaign literature in your mailbox haven’t alerted you to this fact, we will: Nebraska’s primary elections are in 18 days.
For those seeking more information on the content of those mailers, the Journal Star recently rolled out a one-stop shop for casting light on political advertising. Our Campaign Mailbox project - available online at journalstar.com/campaign-mailbox - strives to better explain to readers the often confusing, always expanding world of election marketing.
This newsroom project relies heavily on readers to submit campaign messaging they receive, using the link above, and take note of any claims or details that may seem questionable.
Thus far, direct mail has dominated the discussion this primary season. But even with just two contested statewide primaries and most competitive races at the local level, several questions have rolled in - and Journal Star reporters are answering them.
The project has addressed concerns readers raised about both the Republican and Democratic races for Lancaster County treasurer and the GOP gubernatorial primary. So far, it has answered questions about the legality of a proposal by a treasurer candidate, an implied endorsement from a former elected official and what happens to voter-registration data sent to campaigns.
All of those have been received, researched and reported within the last week. No doubt more will come - and we implore you to reach out to us with both the innocuous and incendiary.
Political advertising has blown up since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in 2010. This controversial landmark case declared political spending was a form of protected speech and that the government couldn’t place spending limits on companies or unions.
Naturally, expenditures on political marketing exploded afterward.
A Borrell Associates report estimated the 2018 midterm elections to generate more than $8.5 billion in ad spending, up from just less than $8.3 billion four years ago. These stats aren’t even from presidential election years. The 2016 election cycle brought in $9.8 billion, which was lower than anticipated - something that would likely seem improbable to those who lived through it.
But that’s what makes this work all the more important. As Americans are inundated with more political advertising than ever before, it becomes harder to vet the claims made within it.
While rah-rah mailers that set forth a candidate’s platforms are one thing, we’ve all learned in recent months how sinister and invasive political advertising can be, through Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, reports on Russian trolls’ attempts to sway elections and other dubious claims.
When it comes to campaign literature, to borrow a line from the Department of Homeland Security: “If you see something, say something.” We’ll examine it for you and share what we find out.
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McCook Daily Gazette. April 27, 2018
Online tools can help solve crimes, violate civil rights
If you have Google maps installed on your smartphone, you may or may not have noticed the “Your timeline” feature.
If it’s enabled, you can check back on any particular day to see where you were at any particular time, how long you were there and where you went next.
If you have an Amazon Echo or similar device, you may not realize it’s got its ears perked up all the time, waiting for you to say its name.
Some people swear they start seeing advertising in their Facebook news feeds or search results after simply talking about certain products.
Even the most technologically astute among us would probably be shocked to know how much specific personal information about us is floating around in cyberspace.
So what, you may say, I have nothing to worry about, since I haven’t been doing anything wrong.
True, perhaps, but you definitely do have reason to be concerned if you have been up to something immoral or illegal.
One-time policeman Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, found that out this week when he was arrested in connection with 12 unsolved murders between 1976 and 1986, dubbed the Golden State Killer case.
And, he wasn’t even the person who put his most personal of information online.
Authorities say they connected DeAngelo to the 12 killings and more than 50 rapes by comparing crime-scene evidence with genetic information posted by his relative to an online ancestry website. Two of the largest, Ancestry.com and 23andMe say they weren’t the business involved.
They suspect DeAngelo in a 13th murder, the killing of a community college instructor shot while stopping someone from kidnapping his 16-year-old daughter.
DNA isn’t the only evidence used against the suspect, of course, but it was the final piece of the puzzle in bringing him to justice.
Few will object to law enforcement officials using every tool at their disposal to solve crime, but the same technology can be used by authorities or others to violate the rights of innocent citizens or employees.
Technology doesn’t care whom it serves - those online navigation records can help you keep track of your business miles or provide information for a suspicious spouse.
Little can be done to slow the advance of intrusive technology but it’s up to responsible private citizens to keep their noses clean and stay involved in the political and legal process to ensure that technology is not used to rob us of our freedom.
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